News

Rogers outs new data sharing options

By Charles Starrett ● Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Rogers has outed its new data sharing options, with a special option for iPhone users on the 6GB/$30 a month plan. Under this new option, users who are already paying $30 for 6GB of data a month on their iPhones will need to pay an extra $30 a month—plus the Government Regulatory Recovery Fee—in order to share that data with an iPad. As iLounge editor Jesse David Hollington notes, Rogers offers a standalone 5GB/$35 a month data plan for iPads, making the new $30 option a poor deal for users wanting to share data with their iPad 3G units. iPhone in Canada speculates that with the launch of these new data sharing options, Rogers may be preparing to charge for iOS 4.3’s Personal Hotspot feature, despite the fact that they haven’t charged for USB/Bluetooth tethering in the past. Unless Rogers was able to disable the Wi-Fi sharing feature of the Personal Hotspot individually, this would actually take away existing free functionality from current users by disabling Bluetooth and USB tethering. Users who aren’t on the $30 for 6GB of data plan can share their data with other devices for a charge of $10-$15 per month.

Comments

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From the Rogers website:

** Effective immediately, tethering will continue to be included at no additional charge for Rogers customers who subscribe to a data plan of 1 GB and above **

This has been in effect for a while now, and I frequently tether to my laptop with no additional fees. I guess they don’t plan on extending the courtesy to iPad users. Another reason to jailbreak and go with MyWi!

Posted by Brian on February 8, 2011 at 10:09 AM (CST)

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The new sharing plan is for iPad 3G users and has nothing to do with Personal Hotspot or Internet Tethering, but rather having a data plan directly on the device with the data shared (for billing purposes) with an iPhone on the same account.

iPad Wi-Fi users (or iPad 3G users without a data plan) could still conceivably tether through the iPhone using either Wi-Fi or Bluetooth* at no extra charge unless Rogers decided to charge for the Personal Hotspot feature. Based on the statement above it’s unlikely that Rogers will do this—even if they could technically disable the Wi-Fi Hotspot feature only, they couldn’t realistically tell their existing customers who are on contract that they are now going to start charging for Bluetooth tethering.

(* With iOS 4.3 the iPad will apparently support tethering over Bluetooth, so even if a carrier could disable Wi-Fi Hostpot access only this would not preclude iPad users from sharing data through their iPhone over Bluetooth, in the same way users have already been doing with laptops).

Posted by Jesse Hollington on February 8, 2011 at 10:19 AM (CST)

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That sucks. They rasied the price. IT was only $20 to share data on my iphone and ipad with rogers. Way to go rogers and stick us for more money.